FG targets 2.3% GDP contribution from creative sector by 2030

The Federal Government is targeting a 2.3 per cent contribution from Nigeria’s creative sector to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and an additional two million jobs by 2030 as it moves to position the industry as a major driver of economic diversification.

Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musa Musawa, disclosed this during a meeting with the Director-General of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Professor Ayo Omotayo, and former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.

Musawa said the government was developing the policy and institutional framework required to transform the creative, cultural and tourism industries into engines of economic growth under the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu.

She said the ministry had inaugurated four committees responsible for policy and strategy, programmes and implementation, stakeholder engagement, and monitoring and evaluation to develop the institutional and financial architecture required to achieve the sector’s targets.

“We are also concluding work on the National Tourism policy that will anchor this vision for years to come,” she said.

The minister said the Orange Economy, comprising the creative, cultural and cultural-heritage sectors, was central to the government’s economic diversification strategy and should no longer be treated as an afterthought.

The creative sector currently contributes between 1.2 per cent and two per cent to Nigeria’s GDP and employs about 4.2 million Nigerians, according to the minister.

The latest target would therefore require the sector to increase its economic contribution while significantly expanding employment over the next four years.

Omotayo said NIPSS had identified the creative sector as the final area of focus in its assessment of sectors capable of supporting the Federal Government’s ambition to build a $1 trillion economy by 2030.

He said Nigeria’s creative sector had the potential to contribute as much as $450 billion to the economy if its capacity was fully developed.

“For the national institute, we have bonded ourselves to the agenda of Mr President in which he wants Nigeria to reach a trillion-dollar economy by 2030,” Omotayo said.

The meeting preceded plans by NIPSS to host a National Summit and Exhibition on the Orange Economy, aimed at examining the sector’s capacity to support Nigeria’s economic ambitions.

The government’s latest projection builds on an earlier target announced by Musawa in May 2025, when she said the ministry was seeking to grow the creative, cultural and tourism industries into a $100 billion contributor to Nigeria’s economy by 2030.

She had also disclosed plans to monetise Nigeria’s tangible and intangible assets in the creative, cultural and tourism industries to create additional revenue streams.

The new 2.3 per cent GDP target and two-million-job projection underscore the government’s growing focus on the creative economy as a source of employment, investment and non-oil economic growth